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New toddler developments

It’s been really nice here lately. So nice that Maximus has spent a lot of mornings and afternoons outside at daycare. We don’t have many complaints about this, except when we have to convince him that he wants to get in the car seat instead of playing outside. Trying convincing a toddler that going home is a good idea. Yah, right! We’ve had our share of tantrums over the past month because we have to go inside, get in the car, or Mother Nature decides to throw in a couple of normal spring days. We’ve gotten into a good routine with outside {aka, side} and have learned not to use the word outside in any sentences unless we really are going outside.

It didn’t take Maximus long before he figured out how to close the sliding screen door to our deck. Bryan was going in and out of the house while grilling. Since the weather is unseasonably warm, there weren’t any bugs during the first warm snap. Maximus is a worker. He likes to have jobs and “help.” As soon as he realized that Bryan wasn’t shutting the door behind him, he took off across the deck as fast as his little feet would take him. With his head down in concentration, I thought he was going inside the house. He quickly stopped along the open door. With both palms pressed against the screen, he pushed and pushed and pushed until the door closed.

He turned around, clapped both hands, and grinned at me. Job well done, baby dude. This went on for about 10 minutes before Wrigley got stuck in a door closing job and was the only one in the house. Maximus let out a little sigh of surprise and pried his chubby fingers between the screen and the wall. I watched in surprise as he figured out how to open the door! {So much for taking things slowly!} What happened next is one of the funniest things I’ve seen him do. He had only opened the screen enough to let his body in, because that’s the wingspans of his arms when opening the door. He reached in with one hand and grabbed Wrigley’s collar. INSTEAD OF GETTING OUT OF THE WAY!

*Since this original development a month ago, Maximus has had a lot of practice opening and closing the screen door. He’s very good at opening and closing it. The glass door was too heavy for a while, but he’s since figured out how to close it. Thankfully he can’t open it yet. Locking it isn’t a question because he’s been unlocking it for months.